A Sikh community leader has told the Australian parliament that putting through a bill in support of same-sex marriage would “destroy the whole human race”.

Bawa Singh Jagdev, who is the current Secretary of the National Sikh Council of Australia, also suggested that same-sex couples should instead call their relationships “homo unions”.

The comments came in a public submission to the current Senate inquiry into the government’s draft marriage equality bill.

He said in the submission: “What the proponents of the bill are proposing and supporting is against the law of nature. God created humans on this planet to propagate the human race and not to destroy it. This bill will destroy the whole human race.”